Optical spectroscopic measurements have been performed on 11 patients undergoing culposcopy as follow-up to positive pap smear tests or other complaints. In these preliminary, noninvasive measurements, differences in the elastic-scattering spectra, from 300 to 700 nm, appear to correlate with different pathology conditions. Also, for normal tissue conditions, correlations have been made between the spectral signatures and the two different epithelium types, squamous-cell and columnar-cell, corresponding to the cervical surface outside and inside of the transformation zone near the cervical os, respectively.